Protecting the BBEG's stronghold from epic level characters (3.5)

[flappeercraft]

So right now I'm DMing a campaign that is supposed to go up to around 21st level where the PC's will have their chance to get their final stand against the BBEG and stop him from killing Ehlonna, Bahamut and Tiamat to absorb their divinity and become a Divine rank 35 god. But the problem lies in protecting his Stronghold and the guy is pretty damn paranoid. So what defenses should he put? To the moment I'm thinking that one of the traps could be a Greater shadow conjuration Wall of stone on the floor which falls into a pool of poison which has antimagic sigils in it which would be something to get those who have good will saves, especially casters in this case. Possibly something like Adamantine golems, pit fiends, etc. The BBEG can cast like a 20th level wizard and 20th level cleric if it helps so that should be easily covered. Don't worry about the money cost while he could realistically get that (The BBEG is a 21st level pretty optimized character just to give an approximation). He has access to Monstrous Thrall spell and he has Wish as a 1/day SLA. If possible also include a trap that could be used against Ehlonna/Bahamut/Tiamat or just limit them from getting out, just for plot purposes.

Edit: Traps that rely on cheese are allowed while no infinite loops are included. Also, is the mirror of opposition any good? It seems like it would be a good one but I would like an opinion from the playground.

[NevinPL]

Maybe a lot of permanent level draining stuff, and then "the usual" ?
Suggested by you fighting fire with fire (epic vs epic), works too.

[Trebloc]

Alot of this will depend on just how optimized your PCs play, and how many you have at the table, as well as what classes they are. And of course remember the play style the group has become used to, and ensure everyone has fun. Some basics that I use in epic play:

-Have the group on some time-dependent schedule. That way they cannot do something silly like go nova for 1-2 fights, then retreat and rest for a day.

-Push the group's resources. I've pushed groups to 30+ encounters in a game day, but I had some players that over-prepared and were ultra stingy with resources. Some were fairly easy, some were meant to be difficult, but it all adds up. And it gives the chance for the party to shine by taking down a hard encounter easily. It also gives room for the party to make an easy encounter extremely difficult.

-The BBEG should have something setup to stop scry & die tactics. Granted, as a group we had a gentleman's agreement to not do that (because what goes around comes around ;) )

-I liked to hit the group with multiple dispel magics over the day to strip off a few of the longer-lasting buffs. Again, my group was over-prepared, so would sometimes spam every long duration spell they could the night before a big day, if they could manage it. I usually didn't go overboard and try to dispel everything (fun killer), but set the odds at something like 10-30% chance of dispelling spells.

-To go along with the dispels, have some enemies/traps have the potential to drain off some resources. Things that are limited to a few uses per day. Deathward on armor was a common one at my table, but there are plenty of useful gadgets like it.

-Really switch it up. Traps, ambushes, puzzles, roleplaying. It's epic play, whatever you can think of, put it into play.

-Have some of the encounters where the group is at a big disadvantage. Anti-magic is an easy one. Having a room with a Repel Metal effect in place and enemies who have no metal on them was a fun encounter.

-Go overboard on the enemies. Let your imagination go. I've had fun with things like Vampire Monks with Mobility who would hit & run out of LoS, Wizards with the Epic feat Multispell who spammed Mazimized Magic Missiles, Huge giants with spiked chains and Spellcasting Harrier and trip feats and Combat Reflexes so that everyone with 60' gets tripped and casting draws an AoO....etc

-Don't be afraid to kill them. If they go down easily, then it's not fair to say they're epic PCs. But death should happen. For my group, it was a minor inconvenience of waiting to get a TRez off a scroll and continue.

[flappeercraft]

Alot of this will depend on just how optimized your PCs play, and how many you have at the table, as well as what classes they are. And of course remember the play style the group has become used to, and ensure everyone has fun.

I have 3 players but 2 of them control 2 characters. The first who is an optimizer has a Water Orc Mineral warrior Fighter/Barbarian/Warblade and an Azuring Wilder (with the trick for renewable power points), the second player who is semi experienced has a Human sorcerer and a Aasimar cleric of erythnul. The final player who will soon join us who is really new as in learned how to play about 2 weeks ago is going to join with an assassin. The point of the campaign is that it is all the cheese you can and want to pull off without infinite loops and it is also supposed to be harder. We use 40 point buy or roll normally and +2 to any 2 attributes you choose, with a maximum of 18 before racial/template modifiers. So it's a pretty high op campaign so they should be able to handle most things due to the optimizer who pretty much carries the whole team. But about the newer player, no need to worry, they are barely at 9th level so he will have time to learn. I allow gestalt but they have not used it for some reason, also we did a gentleman agreement for me to keep level draining and equipment destruction at a minimum but still existent. They are all evil if it helps.

[daremetoidareyo]

Put the stronghold in the dream of a hibernating dire tortoise adrift in a tube of quintessence.

[flappeercraft]

Put the stronghold in the dream of a hibernating dire tortoise adrift in a tube of quintessence.

How can one do that?

[daremetoidareyo]

How can one do that?

I guess hang out with an astral tracker, wait for a dire tortoise to sleep, track it to it's personal dream scape, planeshift there, build your stronghold. Meanwhile, you have team kidnap the sleeping tortoise and drop it into your vat of quintessence. Easy peasy.